Apparatus for automatically conveying bottles, &amp;c., into annealing-furnaces.



No. 898,179. PATENTED SEPT. 8, 1908. c. BRAUBR.

APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY CONVEYING BOTTLES, &0., INTO ANN BALIN G FURNACES.

APPLICATION FILED OUT. 23, 1907.

1n: mamas PETERS ca., wnsmnamu. u. c

CARL BRAUER, OF HOSTOMITZ, NEAR TEPLITZ, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY CONVEYING BOTTLES, &c., INTO ANNEALING- FURNACES.

Specification of Letters Patent.-

Patented Sept. 8, 1908.

Application filed October 23, 1907. Serial No. 398,724.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CARL BRAUER, work- 7 ing manager, a subject of the Emperor of Germany, and resident of Hostomitz, near Teplitz, Bohemia, Empire of Austria-Hungary, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Automatically Conveying Bottles or the Like into Annealing-Furnaces, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to an apparatus for automatically conveying bottles and the like from the workmens benches or places where they are produced or worked, into the cooling annealing furnaces.

The novelty of the invention lies more especially in the fact that a conveyer for re ceiving bottles of any shape and size is laterally attached to each of a number of trolleys or carriages running on rails, andis so ar ranged that the bottle received by the conveyer can be at once transferred into the annealing furnace slide and annealing furnace by opening the conveyer.

The invention further consists in forming the bottle feeding or depositing device and the bottle conveying device with downwardly opening flaps or wings and retaining the said flaps or wings by a support when a bottle is in the depositing device or conveyer in such a way that the flaps cannot open downwards. The flaps of the depositing device and conveyer are opened in accordance with the invention by automatically moving the support to one side, so that the flaps can open downwards under the weight of the bottle lying upon them and the bottle can fall through. For forcing the support to one side a wedge shaped piece with a curved face is provided on it, and a roller, nose, wheel or the like is provided on one or both flaps of the conveyer in such manner that in the travel of an empty conveyer past a depositor containing a bottle, the nose or wheel runs against the wedge shaped piece and forces the support back so that the bottle can drop from the depositor into the conveyer. At the same time the flaps of the conveyer are pressed down by the weight of the bottle so as to come on to a support provided on the conveyer. The nose or wheel on the conveyer is thus brought into a depressed position such that when the conveyer travels past the other depositors, the conveyer passes under the wedge shaped piece inoperatively and the succeeding depositors are not opened.

hen a conveyer containing a bottle reaches the annealing furnace slide, a roller, wheel or nose disposed before the slide strikes the wedge shaped piece of the conveyer, so that the flaps of the latter are opened and the bottle is transferred into the annealing furnace. This transference of the bottle into the annealing furnace can be effected by disposing before the annealing furnace slide a laterally weighted tilting carrier, into which the bottle dropping from the opened conveyer passes, the carrier being adapted to tilt and automatically move into an inclined position before the slide so that the bottle in consequence of its weight passes on to the slideand through the same into the annealing furnace, the carrier returning automatically to its original position.

Apparatus constructed in accordance with the present invention possesses the great advantage that the bottle does not fall through between the rails, but laterally from the track, and that the different devices for opening and closing the feeders or depositors are constructed Without any complicated mechanical arrangements such as levers, springs and the like in such manner as to insure satisfactory operation in all cases.

The accompanying drawings represent one form of the above described apparatus arranged for example for automatically conveying bottles into the annealing furnace of a bottle making plant, the parts being shown in three different working positions.

Figure 1 shows in elevation and Fig. 2 in section online AB Fig. 1, the position of the parts at the workmans bench with a finished bottle inserted in the depositor or feeder cradle. Fig. 3 shows in elevation and Fig. at in section on line CD Fig. 3, the position of the flaps of the feeder cradle and of the conveyer with the bottle delivered to the conveyer for transport to the annealing furnace. Fig. 5 is an elevation partly in section, and Fig. 6 a section on line EF, Fig. 5 showing the position of the parts of the apparatus in front of the annealing furnace slide; a bottle is shown as just dropping from the opened conveyer into the tilting carrier. Fig. 7 is a diagrammatic view showing the glass melting furnace, the work benches or places and a number of annealing furnaces,- together with the rails for the conveying apparatus.

Upon the track a run a number of trolleys b driven by electric motors or the like and each having attached to it at the side a conveyer c constructed as hereinafter described." The rails a are suitably mounted on pillars-d having upwardly branched top pieces a.

At each of the work benches f, a number of which for exampleare disposed in front of or around the glass melting furnace g, is pro vided a feeder or depositor cradle 6 (Figs. 2 and 4) mounted on a pillar h and consisting of two flaps orleaves Z l pivotally mounted on -a plate 7c and'projecting freely therefrom. The flaps are faced in the known way with a layer of "asbestos to prevent injury to the still red hot bottles which are placed as finished in the feeder cradle. The flaps -of the feeder cradle, after delivering the bottle to the conveyer c traveling under them, are automatically returned to their original position (Figs. 3 and 4) by counter weights m. To prevent the bottle inserted in the feeder cradle from at once falling through, there is pivotally mounted on the plate lc'a counter-' weighted support n against which the flaps Z Z depressed by the bottle laid upon them bear (Fig. 1). At the side of the support n is a wedge shaped piece 0 having a curved face and serving the purpose explained below.

Similarly to the feeder cradle, the conveyer c at the side of the trolley b is formed of two flaps p, pivotally mounted and projecting freely from the plate Q attached at the side of the trolley frame. On this plate is likewise pivoted a support-j having at the side a wedge shaped piece 1" with a curved face. This counterweighted support is usually-beneath the flaps p p, so that these cannot'at once descend with the bottle on receiving it from the feeder cradle i; the bottle is thus prevented from prematurely falling from the conveyer c.

When a conveyer c traveling with the trolley Z) comes under a feeder cradle'i con tai-ning abottle, a roller 3 (or itmay-be a wheel or nose), on one of the flaps p, or preferably on each of the flaps of'the con veyer c, strikes against the wedge-shaped piece 0 and rocks the support n aside so that the flaps Z Z cease to be supported and open under-the weight of the bottle, which falls on to the closed flaps p p of the conveyer de-- pressing them slowly until they rest on the support on the conveyer plate, Figs. 3 ant 4.

When the flaps p p and bottle are in this osition the conveyer 0 travels with the troley 1) until it comes in front of the annealing furnace slide t shown in Fig. 5, before and above which a box-shaped counterweighted tilting carrier a is mounted for the reception of the bottle delivered by the conveyer. The carrier a which is suspended so as to be adjustable, is mounted on an arm '0 projecting laterally from a pillar disposed just in front of the annealing furnace slide, on which arm -is*mounted a roller or a nose to located in the path of the wedge shaped face 7. When the wedge shaped piece 1" in its travel with the conveyer c strikes the roller w, the support j is rocked out laterally and thus moved out of the path of the roller w; consequently the flaps p of the conveyer c are'no longer supported and swing open under the weight of the bottle, allowing this to drop through into the tilting carrier a. The flaps p are automatically returned to their normal positionduring thereturn of the trolley b to the work benches, by thecounterweights :0 attached to them, so that as the trolley travels past the Workbenches the conveyer can again take'a bottle from the feeder cradle i. When the bottle falls on to the normally horizontal carrier at, this tilts into the position shown in dash and dot lines Fig. 5 and delivers the bottle to the annealing furnace slide 25, whereupon the 'carrier returns to its horizontal L kewise the wedge shaped pieceposition. 1" returns to its normal position on leaving the roller w in the further travel of the trolley.

In Fig. 7 the annealing furnaces served and filled by the described conveying apparatus are lettered z. The feeder cradles i are situated between the work benches f and the track a.

If desired the conveying apparatus may be arranged in such manner as to deliver the bottles or the likefrom the conveyer on the trolley direct into the annealing furnace slide.

In the described apparatus, theconveyers containing the bottles or the like pass under the other feeder cradles not intended to be operated by them so that these feeder cradles are not opened by the conveyers travelingstead of providing only one roller or nose in front of the tilting carrier a, to mount two such rollers at a distance apart corresponding to half the distance apart of'the pivoting points of the conveyer flaps.

Instead of mounting both flaps of the feeder cradles and conveyers pivotally, one

flap may be fixed and serve as a partial supporting surface for the bottle, while the other is arranged to pivot so that when this flap turns downwards, the bottle will slip off the fixed flap into the conveyer or into the carrier in front of the annealing furnace slide as the case may be.

The described bottle conveying apparatus can be employed for bottles of all shapes and sizes and presents the advantage that it enables the bottles to be delivered into the annealing furnace in the German way, that is to say with the bases leading, which is a recognized advantage.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is:

1. In an apparatus for conveying bottles and other articles into annealing furnaces and in combination, a plurality of bottle receptacles suitably spaced apart and each comprising pivotally mounted holding mem bers, supports for maintaining said holding members in their closed positions, wedge shaped members for actuating the said sup ports to, release the holding members, atrack, a trolley adapted to travel thereon, a conveyer mounted on said trolley and adapted to receive bottles from the said receptacles, means on the said conveyer for automatically actuating the said wedge shaped members to operate the holding members of said receptacles and means for delivering the bot tles from the said conveyer to the annealing furnace.

2. In an apparatus for conveying bottles and other articles into annealing furnaces and in combination, a plurality of bottle receptacles suitably spaced apart and each comprising pivotally mounted holding members, supports for maintaining the said holding members in their closed positions, wedge shaped members by which vthe said sup orts' are actuated for releasing the said ho ding members, means whereby the said holding members return automatically to their normal positions after delivering a bottle, means whereby the said supports return to their normal positions after having released the said holding members, a track, a trolley adapted to travel thereon, a conveyer mounted on each of said trolleys and comprisin pivoted holding members a wedge shapec support for the said pivoted holding members of the conveyers, a roller for actuating the supports for the said holding members of the said receptacles and a projecting member located atthe furnace for engaging the said wedge shaped support for releasing the pivoted holding members of the said conveyers.

3. In an apparatus for conveying bottles and other articles into annealing furnaces and in combination, a plurality of bottle receptacles suitably spaced apart and each comprising pivotally mounted holding mem bers, supports for maintaining the said holding members in theirclosed positions, wedge shaped members by which the said supports are actuated for releasing thesaid holding members, means whereby the said holding members return automatically to their normal positions after delivering a bottle, means .whereby the said supports return to their normal ositions after having released the said ho ding members, a track, trolleys adapted to travel thereon, a conveyer mounted on each of said trolleys and comprising pivoted holding members, a wedge shaped support for the said pivoted holding members of the conveyers, a roller for actuating the supports for the said holding members of the said receptacles, means whereby the said pivoted holdin members of the conveyers are automatica ly returned to their normal position, means whereby the said wedge shaped supports for the pivoted holding members of the conveyer are automatically returned and maintained in their normal positions, a projecting member located at the furnace for engaging the said wedge shaped supports for releasing the pivoted holding members of the .said conveyers, a bottle support and tilting carrier for delivering the bottles.

4. In an apparatus for conveying bottles and other articles into annealing furnaces and in combination, a plurality of bottle receptacles suitably spaced apart and each comprising pivotally mounted holding members, supports for maintaining the said holding members'in their closed positions, wedge shaped members by which the said supports are actuated for releasing the said holding members, means whereby the said holding members return automatically to their normal positions after delivering a bottle, means whereby the said supports return to their normal positions after having re leased the said holding members, a track, trolleys adapted to travel thereon, a conveyer mounted 011 each of said trolleys and comprising pivoted holding members, a wedge shaped support for the said pivoted holding members of the conveyer, a roller for actuating the supports for the said holding'members of the said receptacles, means whereby the said pivoted holding members of the conveyers are automatically returned to their normal positions, means whereby the said wedge shaped supports for the pivoted holding members of the conveyers are automatically returned and maintained in their pivoted holding members of the said oonveyers, a bottle support, a tilting carrier for delivering the bottles, and a slide from the same in its tilted position to the annealing 5 furnace whereby the bottles are delivered to l Witnesses:

my invention, I have signed my name in presence of two Witnesses,- this eighth day of October 1907.

CARL BRAUER.

the-same. PAUL ARnAs,

In testimony, that I claim the foregoing as CLARE SIMON. 

